Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-31

what have you to say?" 1.-THE Lord who
has taken care of me fifty years, Will moi
cast me off now; glory be to God and ia
the Lamb! Amen, amen. amen, ament"
"Dying John Powson, after p eaching the
Gospel so many years, what have yoagto
ssy?" "My Heath bed is bed of roses. "
dying DR.. Thomas Scott, what have you
to say?" "Ths is Heaven Begun"
"Dying soldier in the last war, what have
you to say?" "Boys, am g9tbg to the
'front.'" ''DYing telegraph operator on the
battlefield of Virginia, what have you to
say?" "The wires are all laid, and the
poles are all up from >tony Point to head
quarters" dying Pau, what have you
to say?" 81 am now readyto be offered,
and the time of my departure is .atfeEd
| have fought the good fight, have
finished my course, have Kept the faith,
o Death, where is thy sting? o Grave,
where is thy Victory? 4 Thanks
be unto. Gud .swho giveth %Ius
the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ" Oh, my Lord, my Gud, what q
delusion! What a gloriousF deiusion
Submerge me with it, fill my eyes and
ears with it, put it under my dying head
for a pillow-this delusion-spreadS-i II
over me for canopy, put it underneath
me for an outspreading wing, roll 1t over
me
IN OCEAN sURGES,
10000 fathoms deep. On, if intdelity,
and if atheism, and if annihilation are q
reality. and the Christian religion is de:
fusion, give me the delusiOn!
The strong conclusion Of every man
and woman in the house is that Christian
ity producing such results cannot be 8
delusion. A lie, cheat, a swindle, an
hallucination, cannot launch such q
glory of the centuries. Your logic and
your common sense convince you that
a bad cause cannot produce an lllustrious
result; out of the womb OF such mon
ster no such angel can be born. There are
many in this house this morning, in the
galleries and on the main fl 'or, who be-
gan with thinking that the Christian re-
ligion was stupid farce, who nave come
to the conclusion that it is reality. Why
are you here to-day? Why did you sing
this song? Why did you bow your head
in the opening prayer? Why did you
bring your family with you? Why, when
| tell you of the ending of all trials in the
bosom'o of God, do there stand tears in
your eyes-not tears of grief, but tears of
Joy such as stand in the eyes of hOmesick
children far away at school when some
one talks to them about going home? Why
is it that you can be so calmly submissive
to the death of your loved one, about
whose departure you once were so angry
anG so rebellious? There is something
the matter with you. All your friends
have found out there is great change.
And if some of you would give your expe-
rience, you would give 1t
IN SCHOLARLY STYLE,
and others giving your experience would
give 1t in broken style, but the one expe-
rience wJuld be Just as good as the other.
Some Of you have read everything. You
are scientific and you are scholarly, and
yet if l should ask you: "What is the
most sensible thing you ever did?" you
would say: "The most sensible thing l
ever did was to give my heart to God"
But there may be others here who have
not had early advantages, and if they
were asked to give their experience they
might rise and give such testimony as
the man gave in prayer meeting when
he said: ION my way here tonight l met
q man who asked me where | was going.
l said Il am going to prayer meeting
He said, There are good many rellg-
ions, and think the most of them are de-
Iusions; as to the Christian religion, that
is only 8 notion-thst is
A MERE NOTION,
the Christian religion 1 said to him:
Stranger, you see that tavern over
there?' Yes he said, Il see it, do
you see me?' yes, of course l
see YOU Now the time was, as
everybody in this town knows, that
if had quarter of dollar in my pocket
could not pass that tavern without 60
ing in and getting drink; all the people
of Jefferson could not keep me out of
that place; but God has changed my
heart, and the Lord Jesus Christ has de-
stroyed my thirst for strong drink, and
there is my whole weeks wages, and l
have no temptation to 60 in there; and,
stranger, If this ls notion l want to tell
you it is a mighty powerful notion; it is 8
notion that has put clothes on my chill